Three discs amounting
to three and three-quarter hours of music and there’s plenty
more of his harpsichord music. This is truly astonishing especially
when you add his music for keyboard to the church music - the
masses, the motets - and the little known secular music including
the madrigals.

In his 1980 Grove
article Joseph Kerman remarks enthusiastically “Byrd kindled
English virginal music from the driest of dry wood to a splendid
blaze that crackled on under Bull and Gibbons and even lit some
sparks on the continent”.

My Ladye Nevells
Booke was compiled in around 1591, and consists only of
Byrd’s music. “My Ladye Nevell” was the cultured Elizabeth Bacon
(b.1541), the third wife of Sir Henry Neville (‘Nevell’ is a
variant). He was well known in musical circles and very possibly
a patron of Dowland. Anyway it stands to reason that the pieces
here are early Byrd. Nevertheless all of the ten great Pavans
and Galliards are included. Some of the pieces are doubled up
in the FitzWilliam Virginal Book and so, like the variation
sets (‘The Carmen’s Whistle’, Sellinger’s Round’), are quite
extensive. In fact when you realize that Byrd, or at least his
copyists, always marked sixteen bar sections - or possibly twelve
or even eight - to be repeated, a nine minute set could possibly
have been twice that length. I’m not sure if modern day audiences
could cope with that.

Following the pieces
from my copy of the FitzWilliam Book was not always a good idea.
In some instances, as in. ‘The Hunt’s Up’, the Variations come
in a different order suggesting that Byrd revised the work between
1591 and c.1610. On other occasions sections are omitted. Clearly
there are differing versions of some quite well known pieces.

The three discs
each have a slightly differing agenda. The Book is presented
in the order in which it was copied and its progress from long
works to slightly lighter ones is therefore retained, although
not with complete consistency.

Four harpsichords
are used for these recordings and they are quite different.
All were made under the guiding eye of Keith Hill, who writes
eloquently about his instruments and who supplies his e-mail
address in the booklet!

One is called Lautenwerk
(L) designed and made by Keith Hill. It has a melancholy and
not at all piercing sound, quite easy on the ear for works like
the opening ‘My Ladye Neville’s Grownde’. Another is a 1658
Zentis instrument [dZ] which is more metallic and clean. The
third is a Flemish double manual harpsichord made in 1999 after
one dated 1624 (CR). This has a bigger sound and although good
for a major piece like the Seventh Pavan, I am not sure why
it was selected for a lighter work like the ‘The Barley Breake’.
The Italian single manual harpsichord of 1658 (AR) used for
the ‘Battell’ pieces was restored by Keith Hill. It is rattles
a bit – an effect accentuated by the microphone placement.

There are many fine
works here. Let me pick out a few. I have already mentioned
the Pavans - played never too slowly by Elizabeth Farr. These
are in three sections: generally slow and expressive and with
attached triple time Galliards. My favourute pairing is probably
the fourth because here we find Byrd at his most charming and
graceful and tuneful.

The Fantasia (not
Byrd’s title) on ‘Ut, re, mi …’ is a masterwork of polyphony
and is well worth considerable study. It consists of seventeen
variants of the rising six-note figure, based on different tonics
and passing between the four voices. A true tour de force.

I have also much
enjoyed the lighter works including what one might call a curious
descriptive piece, if somewhat naïve: a set of Battle pieces
which can be thought of as a suite. It begins with a ‘March;
before the ‘Battell’ and after a brief series of alarums and
a parade of instruments the fight starts. It ends in a galliard
for Victory and a game called ‘The Barelye Breake’. Some of
you may recall that this game gets a mention as ‘Shall we play
barly-break’ in Morley’s ‘Now is the month of Maying’. In Byrd’s
case it’s a set of imaginative variations on a series of folk-like
tunes.

The most irritating
thing about the otherwise wonderful performances by Elizabeth
Farr is that she arpeggiates chords too often and to such an
extent where the pulse can be lost, especially at the beginning
of slow pieces like Pavans. This surely cannot be right and
seems overly fussy.

Documentation is
good and there is a very useful accompanying essay by Elizabeth
Farr, writing from a performer’s angle. This offers (in the
usual micro-print) a discussion of Byrd’s keyboard works and
of several of the pieces. We are treated also detailed information
about the editions used something I have called for in reviews
of other discs. It can be very helpful.

This set serves
as a handsome reminder that this priceless collection is now
in the hands of the British Library and it is a very impressive
achievement. It is also very well recorded.

Just one question:
why is it that with 3CD box sets one of the discs always falls
out inside the case?

Review
IndexesBy
Label Select a label and
all reviews are listed in Catalogue orderBy
MasterworkLinks
from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to
the review
indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Reviews
from previous monthsJoin the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the
discs reviewed. detailsWe welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin
Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to
which you refer.